Are You The Problem?

Okay, I usually try not to get political here; but I believe that, as a good American, I must stand up and speak some hard truth to you, the creative community. It’s going to look political but, really, it is so very much more than that.

Here is that hard truth: if you want to help keep the orange monster in the White House and people like him in power, losing any social benefits or chance at upward mobility and ruining the future for the next generations, please, continue using Facebook and Instagram (for ease, I’m going to call them collectively “FB” because you know, or should, they are both owned by Zuckerberg*). If you don’t want that and are using those platforms, wake up: you are the problem.

FB not only enables the worst of the worst—anti-Semites, racists, homophobes, sexists, revenge-porn incels, the whole host of uglies—it actively encourages them. Do a search of “facebook incels” if you don’t believe me. FB makes a lot of money from these twisted people and their hate groups. Zuck hides behind the idea that blocking these groups would be against the first amendment, but that is bullshit: the first amendment does not apply here. Free speech is about the government silencing or compelling speech, not a private entity doing so. So, the first amendment argument is a total fake. It is FB (etc., see Google, EFF…) using a powerful symbol of our fundamental rights (the phrase “first amendment”) as a manipulative tool to make us think it is doing the right thing, while it’s actually taking that right (and others) from us, the regular folk. 

Rather, FB/Zuck have an interest in promoting one rule of law for the rich, white, and powerful, and another for all the rest of us. Zuck loves money and power. He has made it clear, over and over, that he is lacking anything resembling actual compassion—he wants what he wants and will run over anyone or anything that gets in his way. Trump and his similars are his (and others like him—see, e.g., Ek, Musk, Thiel, et al.) ticket to this new America; they will never de-platform him or those who use terror and cruelty to support his “reign.”

By using the FB platforms you make it financially possible for FB’s continued promotion and support of Trump and his followers. In short, every time you use FB, you are helping keep Trump in the White House and people like him in power. That is not an exaggeration. You are trading your freedom and the opportunity for yourself and your children to live in safety and freedom, for the convenience of the platforms’ reach. That’s it. 

It’s bad enough if you use FB just to stay in contact with friends and family, but if you are using those platforms as a part of your business marketing, you are very much literally providing the content (I hate that word) that drives the whole machine. You are providing the fuel for this cross-and-book-burning-deep-state-conspiracy-make-the-rich-richer-dumpster-fire. You are enabling and enriching those who do not want you to succeed; in fact, they don’t give a shit about you except for how you can make them more money and be used to help them make America a whiter, christian, hetero-only, male-centric safe place for their greed. They want to put a sexist, homophobic, racist, (pseudo)theocratic oligarchy yoke on you and your descendants. And you are helping them.

So just stop.
Please.

If FB lost the photographers, illustrators, filmmakers, musicians, etc., it would not be able to get the advertising dollars it does. I believe that losing the creative class as users would mean FB would eventually fail, and probably sooner rather than later. The quality of content would drop dramatically. Fewer people would be interested in visiting. Remember MySpace? Same thing can, and should, happen. Besides, at the very least, by quitting, you could go to sleep at night knowing you were not contributing to the problem. 

We need to stop thinking about what is easy and begin not just thinking about but doing what is right. By writing this, posting it, and posting links to it, I am risking backlash to my business; but I cannot ignore this basic-yet-hard truth and raising attention to it is the right thing to do. If I lose some clients, I can live with that. Staying silent? Not so much.

Rather than getting pissed at me for pointing out this hard truth and maybe making you uncomfortable, I hope that you’ll recognize that what it means is that you have incredible power. Each of you, when working together, absolutely can change this. Voting, yes, of course, but economically, when we work together, we are a huge force! In 2017, the arts added almost 900 BILLION DOLLARS to the US economy and independent artists made up over 50 billion of that (see https://nasaa-arts.org/nasaa_research/facts-figures-on-the-creative-economy/ for lots of arts-and-money stats). Those numbers don’t include the money your work generated for the tech companies/platforms—numbers we’ll probably never get, since the platforms never want you to know the truth of your power.

Speaking of your power, the other side of this truth is that those now in power, those like Zuck and Trump, are terrified of us. They know we can wake up to our ability to get our shit together and stop their exploitation of us. They know that, when we do, many of them are going to see their money lost or seized and, better yet, the inside of a jail cell. We can do this, it just takes the internal fortitude to make the choice (and a little more effort in your marketing). 

So I call on each of you to reclaim your power and stop using the platforms. Also, I call on the professional organizations who represent each of the creative industries to (1) stop using the exploitative platforms themselves; (2) encourage their members to stop using the platforms; and (3) put more efforts into providing members alternative tools to use for their marketing.

While this is a political issue in the sense that it is manifested in Trump, and perhaps an organization doesn’t want to play politics, at its foundation, this is much greater than that and organizations should recognize that.

I would go so far as to say that we can and must save these United States; we must stand together to do it. True republicans don’t want this corrupt, greedy reality any more than true democrats (or socialists, or greens, etc.). Once we get past the current crisis and restore the actual checks and balances both in our governmental system and our economic one, we can move back into our politely apolitical postures.

So, in closing, I say: cut off Facebook and Instagram from their content-fuel! De-platform the platforms! Take your power and wield it for the greater good. 
Please.

___________________

[* Yes, there are shareholders, but he has the only real power because of how the shareholder voting rights are structured.]